Not busy at all

When I arrived the dressing room was still as busy and disorganized as ever.   I look forward to the time when it’s not as hectic.  They put the schedule up so it added to the chaos.  My schedule was exactly the same as it was last week.  Looking at the schedule posted I noticed most girls there worked 6 days a week.  Since pretty much everyone was in school I don’t know how they possibly pull that off unless they’ve been neglecting their course work or skipping classes.  I was having enough trouble working 4 days.   I don’t know why they need to schedule people that many times a week especially since it’s been so slow.

Today I worked a day shift in a section called the Fireplace.  It’s a cozy room with a fireplace meaning you think night when you go in there.   As with most every restaurant there are sections that aren’t really open in the day especially if the restaurant is rather large.  That would be this section as well as the Game Room.  Today both of these sections had 3 servers in each which was a problem because absolutely no one sat there the entire day. 

Tara was in the patio and she didn’t have anyone her whole shift either.  When it’s slow that’s the time that it

sticks out more if you aren’t talking to other tables.  I’m kinda over talking to other tables.  It’s annoying and I find it rather obnoxious.   I don’t get tips from that table and I’m here to make money, not to waste time.  I eventually got switched into the Game Room because some girls didn’t show up and management had to totally redo the floor plan.  It appears every shift some people just didn’t show up.  I don’t know if they didn’t know that they were working or that they didn’t want to work here anymore but it was weird.  I’ve never worked someplace before where someone just didn’t show up to work.  I had the Game Room all to myself but it was just as bad because I did not have one single guest for the duration of my shift.

Even though they thought they’d be busier I still don’t understand why they would keep 6 servers in 2 sections that there was NO ONE.  To add to this unfairness is that the main dining room was pretty busy.  The restaurant was in an I or dumbbell shape.  So the middle was busy and the other sides were totally dead.  I think originally the hostesses tried to seat guests in the other sections but none of them wanted to feel like they were sitting in Bum Fuck Egypt with no one else sitting around so they requested to move.  After awhile I think the hostesses just gave up.

The restaurant is ironing out its kinks for sure but I can tell you right now it is not going to be nearly as busy as they hoped.  I think originally corporate or the franchisers thought they’d be busy all day long every day but that’s clearly not the case here.  It’s okay if you are not over flowingly busy on a Monday day shift, even very successful restaurants aren’t but I think though they thought they would be which makes me think they didn’t really do proper market research beforehand. 

To be open until 2am as a bar especially on the week days was rather overly ambitious as well.  This Tilted Kilt was located in a strip mall with a Red Lobster and a grocery store as neighbors.  It didn’t scream cool late night bar/band place especially when our city had a downtown area with numerous bars, clubs, and venues for bands.  The people that lived in the vicinity were college students, retirees, and families.  College students are going to be partying at people’s houses where they could drink for cheap or free.  If they wanted to go out to spend money they’d go downtown.  The retirees generally don’t stay out past a certain hour or see bands.  The families I would think would be the most likely going out for beers but I highly doubt they’d be out until 2am even on the weekends.  They’d most likely not be out that late because they had to get up for their kid’s little league game, soccer match, swim meet, or birthday party.   

I wanted to double check the schedule and realized it wasn’t there.  I remember that it was the same as last week but I’m one of those people that like to write everything down just in case.  Someone asked Theresa and she said that they were making some changes and to call her later for the schedule.  I found Theresa not to be the most reliable of people so I texted Anastasia who was working late and she gave me the schedule that was the same as it had been posted, no changes. 

When I went into the dressing room a girl named Bethany was complaining that a Kilt girl sat in her station the other night and gave her $1 on a $50 check. She hadn’t even realized that she was a kilt girl until she saw her the next day (there still are so many of us that I can see that happening). I think that’s totally shitty. So again I made no money this shift. It was discouraging.